# Colemak keyboard layout

7 Hacker News commenters recommended Colemak keyboard layout and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for reducing wrist strain and improving ergonomics over QWERTY. Critics say the switch is often not worth it and some find awkward finger motions.

## Why people recommend it

- Reduces wrist strain and improves ergonomics (2 comments): "swapping to Colemak-DH provided much more ergonomic benefit for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48808283)) "This helped reduce wrist strain at the hand level." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47081072))
- Better than Workman and other layouts (2 comments): "Colemak objectively better than workman for same finger bigrams" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47585735)) "you might want to pick Colemak or Neo2 these days" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47083964))
- Objectively decent layout (2 comments): "Colemak is objectively decent even if you never knew qwerty." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47465134)) "Colemak is objectively decent" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47426594))

## What people warn about

- Not worth switching or overrated (3 comments): "Did not see much point to Colemak or its Mod DH variant" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47566226)) "I can't honestly recommend anyone the switch." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48759566)) "alternative layouts are way overrated" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47566651))
- Awkward motions or strain for some (2 comments): "had some awkward motions or finger strains that just didn't work for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49443090)) "I couldn’t get in tune with it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47102880))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Dvorak keyboard layout](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dvorak-keyboard-layout.md): 11 recommend
- [EurKEY keyboard layout](https://hackerapproved.com/p/eurkey-keyboard-layout.md): 7 recommend
- [Clearflow keyboard layout](https://hackerapproved.com/p/clearflow-keyboard-layout.md): 6 recommend
- [Engram keyboard layout](https://hackerapproved.com/p/engram-keyboard-layout.md): 5 recommend
- [US International keyboard layout](https://hackerapproved.com/p/us-international-keyboard-layout.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Colemak keyboard layout", https://hackerapproved.com/p/colemak-keyboard-layout/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).